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Am I nuts to not move to a meter?

Hi,

We've always been on standard rated water and I've never given it much thought, but looking around it seems we're paying a fortune.

We're in a 3-bedroom detached house in the suburbs of Birmingham with a garden to the rear. We're currently paying £63 a month for water! This seems extremely high even for rated water, or is this not the case?

There are only two of us in the house with no prospect of any more. Using the quick calculators, it appears that we could potentially halve our bill by going on to a meter.

TBH I've resisted the idea of a meter in the past as I don't like the idea of watching how much water I use all the time. That said, even if we used water with the "gay abandon" we currently do, our bill would still be drastically reduced.

The other factor is resale. As you can't have a meter removed (after the initial "trial" period), I've often felt that having no meter would be a benefit when the time came to sell up, as a meter-less family home such as ours would be attractive to families who use a fair bit of water. Even so, I think a family of four would probably struggle to spend £63 a month on a meter, wouldn't they?

At the end of the day, we're not exactly strapped for cash so, even if I could save £20 or £30 a month by going on to a meter, I'm still slightly resistant to the idea for the aforementioned reasons.

Am I mad? Any advice appreciated.
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Comments

  • rrf494g
    rrf494g Posts: 371 Forumite
    save money
  • Gothicfairy
    Gothicfairy Posts: 3,060 Forumite
    I am guessing you are with Severn Trent water and paying a normal payment plan amount IE 8 installements for RV so yearly your bill would be about £500 give or take depending on any changes.

    That gives a slightly different picture of the bill as water metered bills are split over 11 months as standard and if we use your £500 RV it then becomes £45 per month for the same bill amount. Families of 4 have used more and have used less..That is a "how long is a peice of string" question.

    Really though there is no point in taking about payment plans as that is not the bill..A water meter can work out more or less but no one can tell you the impact as we just don't know.

    STW do not meter when new tenants/ owners take over the property but the ruling is there to let them and they might at any time choose to do that and if that were that where the case it wouldn't make any difference what you did or didn't do.

    To be honest it is totally up to you and if you want to save cash now then get a meter but if you are not that bothered then don't.

    not really sure what else can be said..sorry
    There is a race of men that don't fit in; A race that can't stand still;
    So they break the hearts of kith and kin, and roam the world at will.

    Robert Service
  • Cardew
    Cardew Posts: 29,064 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper Rampant Recycler
    As indicated above, Severn Trent do not collect 12 payments a year for bills based on the Rateable Value. So £63 a month is not likely to equal £756 a year. Your bill will state exactly how much.

    The average metered bill for 2 people will be around 110 to 120 cubic metres a year. - around £280 to £300 a year. So there is likely to be a big saving.
  • Gothicfairy
    Gothicfairy Posts: 3,060 Forumite
    There will be a saving for just 2 but I took ops question to be about a family of 4 that might move in should he sell the property.

    I thought he was more worried about what might happen then his own bills, which is where the problem lies because he would save a lot of money but things could change in the future and STW could start to install meters on change of occupier, or he could get a single person wanting to buy or a family of 6...Who knows and my crysal ball is at the shop right now so I can't assist further with that part.
    There is a race of men that don't fit in; A race that can't stand still;
    So they break the hearts of kith and kin, and roam the world at will.

    Robert Service
  • macman
    macman Posts: 53,129 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper
    I really can't believe that a prospective buyer would not buy a house they wanted just because the water was metered. In a few years every property, or at least every new occupant, will be metered anyway, so unless you are thinking of moving in a couple of years go ahead and save the money now.
    No free lunch, and no free laptop ;)
  • Vertigo1
    Vertigo1 Posts: 38 Forumite
    Thanks for the replies.

    I didn't actually realise that STW only billed 8 months out of 12 - never noticed to be honest. That does put a different complexion on things and means we'd save far less going on to a meter. I actually quite like not having to care a jot about how much water I'm using and have to weigh that up against the potential savings. When I used the calculator things to predict my usage they were coming out around the £350 mark, meaning I'm only going to save around £15 a month tops really. Personally I feel that money is worth it for the care-free advantage of rated water, as we're not strapped for cash and frankly, £15 is less than 1% of my monthly outgoings anyway.
  • Snakeeyes21
    Snakeeyes21 Posts: 2,527 Forumite
    eventually all homes will have to have a meter, so its not going to affect resale value, some water companies already force new tenants and owners to have a meter fitted.
    I would do it sooner rather than later to get in to the habbit of watching what you use, or cutting down
  • AndysDad
    AndysDad Posts: 694 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture Combo Breaker
    Vertigo1 wrote: »
    Thanks for the replies.

    I didn't actually realise that STW only billed 8 months out of 12 - never noticed to be honest. That does put a different complexion on things and means we'd save far less going on to a meter. I actually quite like not having to care a jot about how much water I'm using and have to weigh that up against the potential savings. When I used the calculator things to predict my usage they were coming out around the £350 mark, meaning I'm only going to save around £15 a month tops really. Personally I feel that money is worth it for the care-free advantage of rated water, as we're not strapped for cash and frankly, £15 is less than 1% of my monthly outgoings anyway.
    I thought this site was about 'Money Saving'. 2 of us in 4 bed house and the water bill is about £150 /year.I've never looked back after changing to water meter 5 years ago.As someone else has mentioned everyone will be on meter soon,so get used to saving water now.
  • u109230
    u109230 Posts: 121 Forumite
    AndysDad wrote: »
    I thought this site was about 'Money Saving'. 2 of us in 4 bed house and the water bill is about £150 /year.I've never looked back after changing to water meter 5 years ago.As someone else has mentioned everyone will be on meter soon,so get used to saving water now.

    I'm with you on this one!

    Having a water meter gives me more control on how much I use & I regard water use as I do my use of gas & electric.

    What get's measured, get's done.

    Having said that, my mother in law is completely anti water meter. She has a lawn in her back garden about 30m x 80m that she must have a lush green colour regardless of rainfall. Her garden sprinklers are regularly left on 24/7 in the summer.
    Time is a concept of relativity, yet as a concept, relativity is timeless.
  • A._Badger
    A._Badger Posts: 5,881 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Name Dropper
    I'm rather shocked to see such complacency at the prospect of compulsory metering by denizens of a site purportedly devoted to money saving.

    Individual anecdotes don't always scale but, FWIW, I was put on a meter by Southern Water 'by mistake' (they claimed - though I've never believed that. My feeling is that they have a covert policy of fitting meters and arguing later). As a consequence, my bills (at the time I was living alone) were only fractionally cheaper than they had been, when the supply had been unmetered.

    As I was about to get married, which was clearly going to increase consumption markedly, I went to war with SW to get the meter switched off. I won, only to find it is going to be switched back on again sometime within the next few years.

    There is no genuine water shortage in this country. What there is is a gross failure of privatisation that has allowed the transformation of what was once a minor function of local government into big businesses with big salaries and bloated corporate egos.

    As 'moneysavers' we should be kicking up a stink, not meekly accepting this gigantic rip-off.

    If my experience is anything to go by, anyone considering a meter should check the figures minutely and take the water company's estimates as a charming fantasy.

    And no - I don't water my lawn.
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